<p>Need some help here, we live abroad and could not visit colleges this past summer. Son now applying to 10 colleges and says that he would rather wait until the acceptances come in to visit (I was suggesting Dec).</p>
<p>My worry is what if all of them have it at the same time! Lets say even if he gets into 3-5 colleges, would it be possible to visit them successfully that time?</p>
<p>Anyone knows? I went on a few websites but could not find 2010 dates (2009 dates are probably removed).</p>
<p>I gather they will be in the spring break - we get 2 weeks off from school here plus the weekends. Needed to plan, thanks.</p>
<p>Our daughter did not visit schools until accepted student days, except for interviews at nearby schools. We did not find any conflicts among the four schools she chose to visit, but all but one of these schools offered a choice of two or more dates.</p>
<p>I imagine that if necessary, your son could arrange a visit on another day if there is a conflict.</p>
<p>pixel, don’t worry, if they’ve accepted him they want him and will help with visit arrangements. He may experience some overlap among official accepted students weekends, but he can still visit and overnight on his own schedule. </p>
<p>The important point to check though is the dates of the *colleges’ *spring breaks, which would not be a good time to visit.</p>
<p>December is NOT usually a good time for college visits. At DD’s school (Santa Clara), there are no student tours, visits or anything of the kind in the first two weeks of December as it’s the last week of classes/first week of finals (exams end Dec 11). And after that, the administrative offices are open, but there are no students. Most colleges have exams some time in December. So you would want to check.</p>
<p>Many schools have accepted student days in April after the acceptances go out. We found that if the days conflicted, the schools were very willing to work with DD so she could visit. We didn’t have a date conflict, but the option was there just in case. She only visited three schools after acceptance.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters, especially with Thumper about December being a bad time to visit. My son visited two schools in April after acceptance his senior year of HS. Both had an accepted students event on the same weekend so he went to one and then did an overnight at the other the following weekend. The one he did the overnight is the one he ended up attending and is now a senior there.</p>
<p>I agree with all the others, your spring break should be fine for visits. You may be able to look back on the schools’ individual forums to seen when the accepted students’ programs were last year. The schools usually follow the same patterns from year to year and you could get an idea of the timing. If you can’t make an accepted students’ day don’t worry, a regular day visit will also be very helpful.</p>
<p>I think April is the most popular month for accepted students days. Your spring break might coincide with a college’s spring break. Probably not a great time to visit if no students are there. Also something to think about: hotels might be full during accepted students days. Sometimes parents go also and there are separate events for parents. You might want to look into making hotel reservation soon if you plan on going also.</p>
<p>D visited schools only after acceptances but specifically NOT on accepted student days when they roll out the red carpet and bells and whistles and nobody could possibly get a good idea of what it will ‘really’ be like. (She’d been warned by older friends not to buy the hype.)</p>
<p>Spring breaks are usually not really in the Spring since they usually graduate in May. My college kids breaks were/are in late February or early March - before Easter.</p>
<p>Accepted students days are probably not going to be during the colleges’ spring break, which is usually much earlier in the year–remember that a lot of colleges are winding down their second semesters by late April. (Cross-posted.) I think one benefit of going to the scheduled accepted students’ days is that students see who their prospective classmates are and get to experience a nicely orchestrated sample of academic and other activities–it is in my opinion and experience a very good time to to even if it isn’t a “typical” weekend. (And such a nice feeling for kids to be elaborately courted after all those months of wanting to be wanted.) </p>
<p>If there’s a scheduling conflict it’s true that colleges are likely to be welcoming of their accepted prospects at other times as well as the scheduled days.</p>
<p>mathson went to four accepted student’s events. Harvard and Carnegie Mellon had events on two separate weekends (I think 2nd and 3rd week of April) that also included the Monday to attend classes. RPI was on a Wednesday mid April, which turns out to be a day there are no classes to visit and WPI I think was on a Friday. Happily none of them overlapped as he managed to get accepted at four schools he hadn’t visited yet.</p>
<p>Are you concerned that “special visit days” will all be on the same days?</p>
<p>Not to worry…most/all schools host campus visits everyday (M-Sat). So, even if you can’t go to the big “rah rah” accepted student day, you can visit nearly anyday</p>
<p>We didn’t find the accepted student’s days too glossy. The places with bad food still had bad food. They gave more points of view than a single tour guide and info session. They had tours of departments and not just the outsides of buildings. Half offered overnights and classroom visits. Most of the clubs and ECs had some sort of presentation giving you an opportunity to see what’s available. I highly recommend them. And if you don’t like a college when it’s presenting its best foot forward you can be pretty sure you won’t when it’s not. We’ve also visited colleges earlier in April (when my kids were juniors) and found them a fine time to visit - though tours tend to be large as lots of high schools are on break at the same time.</p>
<p>If you already know your travel window dates then you can check the Spring break dates of the colleges your son is insterested in. Assuming that the classes are in session during the time you’ll be in the States then I’d go ahead and make your country to country reservations. You can make the school to school reservations when your son has his acceptances.</p>
<p>If you can’t make a school’s “accepted students day” because of scheduling, you can still try to get some extra custom info that will be in addition to a campus tour. You can contact the major dept and request a “sit in” for various classes (do this at least one week ahead - just send an email request to the dept). After the basic campus tour, you can “self-visit” buildings that interest you.</p>
<p>Even if your S gets accepted to multiple universities, he may not want to go on visits to all of them. For example, if he gets into School 1 and he knows that he’ll choose it over School 2, he may choose not to visit School 2. </p>
<p>D1 visited 2 schools after being accepted–neither on Accepted Students Day. The admissions office at each school set her up with someone to provide a stay in the dorms, helped her find some classes to attend, provided dining hall access. </p>
<p>D2 visited 2 schools on Accepted Students Day, 1 school on her own without admissions office help. The Accepted Students Days were great fun. The big advantage was that there were scheduled talks by department heads about their programs and a question and answer period that turned out to be very useful to my D in making her decision.</p>
<p>So don’t worry if your S can’t make a visit during the appointed Accepted Students Days. Visits are still possible, but you have to work with the admissions office to schedule things on your own.</p>
<p>Some schools run multiple accepted student visit days…BUT there are limited spaces for students. SO keep an eye out early if that is what you want to do.</p>
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